A variety of grinding devices, grinding machines or grinders have been developed for use in grinding materials such as coffee beans. An example of such a grinding device is a G9 grinder as produced by Bunn-O-Matic Corporation of Springfield, Ill., assignee of the present application. Such grinding devices include one or more hoppers positioned above a grinder assembly for generally providing a gravity feed flow from the hopper into the grinder assembly. A brewing funnel or other container can be positioned below the grinder assembly so as to catch the ground coffee dispensed from the grinder assembly.
Such grinding machines may grind a desired amount of coffee based on a timer-controlled grinding method such as is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,259, issued Nov. 20, 1990 to Nidiffer and assigned to Bunn-O-Matic Corporation, assignee of the present application. The grinder shown in Nidiffer '259 includes slide gates which are positioned between an outlet or passage of the bean hopper and the corresponding inlet to the grinder assembly. In one embodiment, the slide gate is connected to a controllable solenoid which shifts the slide gate from a closed position, covering the outlet from the bean hopper, to an open position opening the outlet to the bean hopper. When the slide gate is in the closed position beans are not allowed to flow from the hopper to the grinder assembly. When the solenoid shifts the slide gate to the open position an aperture in the slide gate aligns with the outlet of the hopper and the inlet of the grinder, beans are allowed from flow from the hopper to the grinder. A controller is provided and coupled to the controllable solenoid so as to operate the solenoid to shift the slide gate into the open position for a predetermined period of time. The predetermine period of time corresponds to a quantity of beans which will flow from the hopper to the grinder.
Another type of grinder has been developed which measures the weight of the ground coffee expelled from the grinder assembly. Such a grinder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,386,944 issued Feb. 7, 1995 to Knepler et al., and assigned to Bunn-O-Matic Corporation, assignee of the present application. The Knepler '944 patent discloses using a weight sensor to provide a weight signal. The weight signal is monitored and the grinder assembly is controlled to stop or continue grinding, at least in part, in response to the weight signal. One embodiment of the device as disclosed in Knepler '944 controls the dispensing of the beans into the grinder assembly in response to the weight sensed by the weight sensor. The disclosure in Knepler '944 also provides for an “over-grind” time in which the grinder can be operated for an additional period of time after the dispensing of the beans has ceased so as to clean out the grinder assembly of the beans being ground during the grinding cycle.
Additionally, a variety of coffee bean grinding devices have been developed which include hoppers which are removable from the grinding device. An example might be the variety of coffee bean grinding devices used to grind coffee such as produced by Pavoni and Marcuzzi. These grinders include removable hoppers with devices at the outlet of the hopper which close or stop the bean flow from the hopper when removed. These hoppers are designed to be removable to facilitate cleaning, changing of bean types stored in a variety of hoppers, and removal of beans for storage in a separate location when not in use.
Additional features will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of drawings.